It has been a match of collapses and Australia need to only avoid one on the fourth day to seal a 4-0 lead over England in the Ashes 2013-14 series at the MCG.

England went from 4/202 to 255 all out in the first innings. This was followed by Australia capitulating from 3/110 to stumble to 9/164 before help came in form of a 40-run stand for the final wicket.

And on the third day, England frittered away another decent start to collapse twice in the innings. At one stage they were 1/86 and stumbled to 4/87.

The recovery came through Kevin Pietersen, who made 49 and a couple of starts for Ben Stokes and Jonny Bairstow, but yet again, they lost wickets in a cluster.

Having gotten themselves to 5/173, an inexplicable range of shots from the rest of the batsmen had them bowled out for 179.

And before you wonder, it is not a pitch that should fill the batsmen with terror.

Unlike Brisbane, this one does not have uneven bounce and swing. And unlike Perth, there are no cracks that the bowlers can take advantage of.

It is touch on the slower side which is an excuse that can be used for slower run-rates, but for both teams to lose their wickets in such a hurry is difficult to comprehend.

The scores have also reduced with each innings. England scored 255 in the first dig before Australia replied with their 204. In the second essay, England made only 179.

Which this near-arithmetic progression does suggest that Australia could be in for a dog-fight going into the fourth day of the game, they are only 201 runs away from achieving the target.

And unless England can come up with their best bowling of this series, they can kiss their chances of remaining in the contest a goodbye.

One theory on why the runs haven’t come on this decent batting pitch is that it’s on the slower side.

This means that once the new ball loses its shine, scoring becomes that much more difficult, especially if the captains set fields not too different from the ones in the middle overs of an ODI – especially before the times of starting with two new balls.

The wickets have come because of the frustration emanating out of going scoreless for long periods of time.

And what seems to have done almost every batsman in has been all the talks of being positive when at the wicket – more than anything, it’s been its interpretation.

For instance, in the Australian first innings, David Warner’s attempt at being positive on this slow pitch to attempt cross-batted strokes very early in the knock.

On the third day, Ian Bell gave himself no time to settle down, he played it straight alright but tried to slam it without getting used to the pace of the pitch and holed out.

There can, obviously, be no fixed formula on how to make the most on this pitch, but unlike Perth or Brisbane, this isn’t one of those in which the batsmen will definitely get one or the other ball that will dismiss you.

If the batsmen have the patience, they can carry on batting for long periods without a lot of fear and that’s what most Australian batsmen – barring someone like Warner – could probably need to do.

The other option will be to look to score as many as possible till the ball remains new and then take it from there but the again it’s a matter of taking that much more risk.

One way or the other, it looks like we could be in for an enthralling contest that would be decided tomorrow.

Join me for the fourth day of the fourth Ashes 2013-14 Test with live scores of this game from 10.30am AEDT.

This video could win $10,000!

It's one of the favourites to take out the Club Roar most popular video award on Monday!

Yep that’s the rule. I remember something here, some years ago I was a part of a fantasy cricket competition where the top two users were going neck in neck. In the end, the difference between them was three points and the trailing user had one player which the leading player didn’t.

Something similar happened, that batsman hit a four with two needed to win but completed two runs before the ball passed the fence. The trailing user thought he had got four runs, which was equivalent to four points, and hence thought he had won. But the updated scorecard gave the batsman only two runs because he had run those before the ball hit the fence and hence the trailing player got only two points and lost the fantasy competition by one point!

That will be that from me for now. Australia finishing England off early helps, it’s a nice Sunday ahead for me. More cricket and sports action coming up though, with the Big Bash League having the Sixers take on the Stars in a top-of-the-table BBL clash. That game will be covered live on the site.

Later in the day South Africa will be up against India as Jacques Kallis looks to score a century in his last Test match, played at Durban (weather permitting) while there will be Premier League action too, with Chelsea hosting Liverpool!

So lots to look forward to.

I will be back with some of the BBL games over the next week leading up to the Sydney Test match but if you are not around to follow that, wishing you a very happy new year! Ciao!

Great win to Oz. They chose to field to demonstrate to the Poms just how useless they are or good we are when it comes to the crunch. So the Pommie whingers lost another excuse when the game was presented to them and they choked liked a South Afican team does in limited overs games.

Simoc the pillock,you really are quite bitter & twisted.I’m surprised that you could spare the time to put such hate to press,no thought you would have been studyiy mien kampf to sledge the poms even further.Crawl back under your rock you whinger !

Well done Simoc,I am actually txting this from the back paddock!However I am a little puzzled,why pommy whingers?To my wknowledge,we’v outplayed them totally.But what is it that they’v whinged about?Oh & my comment earlier,was harkening back to a comment you’d made in the 3rd test!That lying & cheating were inherant in poms!Just a bit over the top?